IF you want to find out more about the local history of Kintyre or post some interesting stories then here is the place! All contributors welcome! You can also check out the Historic Kintyre and Down Memory Lane websites.

A bit more recent, and probably a lot of younger forum members will not remember the "onion johnnies", or "ingin joannies" as they were known locally.

It was a source of puzzlement to me how these merchants, some of them elderly, managed to sprachle over from Brittany and reach as far as Campbeltown with strings of onions hanging on every appendage of their bikes. I never found the answer to that yet.

I remember seeing a man on a bike - with strings of onions - a blue and white stripped jersey - with a black beret
hat. This was between 1960 - 1965 Glasgow Glebe St. I never knew if he was real - if you know what I mean. Onion Johnny.

gillette wrote:There once was a tan works at the start of high askomil the road was known as Tanworks Brae

Looking at the old 19th Century maps available on the Historic Kintyre website, I see that there was also a tannery in Lady Mary Row, near the junction with Saddell Street. it appears to be situated round about where the back yard of the present fire station now is.

Incidentally, if I remember correctly, prior to the building of the present fire station, the fire brigade was based in the old distillery building on the opposite side of the road, just to the left of the path/lane that used to run between the Lochend Maltings building and the Lochend Church, and the back of Hazelburn Distillery. the route of the lane is now part of Tesco's car park.

Travelling up the west road on Friday, and unusually not having to drive, it gave me an opportunity to look at some of the scenery and landmarks.

The remains of the alginate factory north of Westport are a reminder of a lost industry which operated in the 1930s and 40s. It was decided by the owners in 1940 that the plant be closed, and production transferred to Barcaldine and Girvan, and it ceased production in 1942.

My knowledge of the Barcaldine plant is that it closed in the (late) 1990s, after having provided the area with a good source of employment for all these years. I knew, and know, some of the employees who had worked there for many years.

Although that plant is now closed, it had a longer innings than any of the companies that have set up in Kintyre over the years, (including Andrew Douglas/Jaeger), and Kintyre’s loss in this case was Oban’s gain.